Paper 3, Work in progress, Contraband Modern in the Fes Medina Project

Issues of Gender: the experience of Female Contrabandists

By Hind Salhi

Introduction

My research focuses on smuggling as a social phenomenon in Morocco; I narrowed the scope of my research to deal with the issues of gender that come up in the middle of this activity.

While I was conducting my fieldwork I managed to uncover some of the many hidden stories, and some stereotypes that people have about women who are involved in contraband. I also witnessed firsthand some of the tough moments when these women have to endure the intervention of the authorities during their trip, and the tension and fears that arise from such interventions.

My city, Nador, which I have used as a case of study, is well known to be one of the most active points of contraband in Morocco; its strategic geographical location in the North allows the people of this city to have access to the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla. In spite of the different measures taken by the Moroccan authorities to restrict the infiltration of the Spanish products to the Moroccan market places, the smuggled goods remain basic for local consumption for various reasons, which differ from an individual to another, such as the quality of these products, their reputation on a world wide scale, and the price. Besides, the largest part of the population’s economic activity is limited within the sphere of smuggling; the jobless in particular find their refuge in contraband, since it is based on free trade and on individual capital. Image 1

Joblessness is one of the major problems of the Moroccan population, and the government remains unable to offer jobs to college graduates; thus, most young people nowadays work as smugglers. Social problems are always behind opting for this kind of trade as a source of income, and these problems are as varied as the smugglers themselves.

The following two interviews reveal the main factors that compel some Moroccan women to run in buses with their bodies and bags laden with different products, in the adventure of illegal trade. For these women, contraband is the only option they have to save their lives and those of their families from poverty.

The trip from Nador to the holy city of Fes, takes around 6 hours, and on its way the bus is stopped incessantly and is carefully examined by the police; nevertheless, smuggled goods fill the markets of Fes, as it is the way in almost all the cities of Morocco.

The kind of smuggled goods that are being bought and sold are the ones that people need for everyday life and which exceed the local products in their quality and practicality. Kitchen-stuff, towels, garments, machines, food... etc, are all products that are being smuggled everyday, and their abundance in the market places has allowed Moroccan people to change many of their consumption patterns. Image 2, Image 4

Most consumers, however, are oblivious to the fact that some products lack the least sanitary conditions, even though they carry the label of ‘a high quality product.’ The daily Moroccan Newspaper Assabah in its issue number 1517 published an article that describes “smuggled goods” as a “bomb ready to explode at any unexpected moment”[1]. The writer of the article affirms that smuggled food products present a serious danger to the Moroccan consumer’s health; food products, the article states, that are smuggled from Melilla in particular, are mere dangerous products that create more problems than solutions to the consumer.

On one of my trips to Mellila, during the religious feast of Aid Al-Adha, a period during which contrabanding activity increases, I saw the way sellers put their goods on a place called Frontera; goods are exhibited in very bad and poor conditions that lack minimum hygiene; food products are exposed to the sun, dust and put randomly on polluted ground. To make it worse, Most of the sellers in market places inside Nador bring their goods from Frontera. Image 3

1) Female Contrabandists

The smugglers are people who come from different places of Morocco. Since it is an illegal activity, the conventional idea about contrabanding in the collective consciousness is that it is a dangerous activity that exposes the contrabandist to all sorts of vulgar and risky confrontations with the authority and with dangerous people; thus, it is imagined to be a harsh activity that is reserved to males only. In the past few decades women too have ventured in this direction and smuggled goods from place to place, but none escaped the generalization of stereotypes giving female smugglers a bad image in Morocco.

Nowadays, social changes and necessity have pushed some women to be involved in contrabanding in order to earn money and to save their families from poverty. Though not all people think the same about these women, the old stereotypes still persist. A woman must not travel alone at night, and she must avoid any physical contact with men; however a female smuggler is exposed most of the time to ill treatment, either from the authorities or from other men such as drivers, sellers, or simply from thieves in case of an inopportune situation as it was the case of one of my interviewees.

The bad image these women have did not come out of the blue. The fact is that some female smugglers under pressure from the authorities and the government were forced to give up smuggling; therefore, the only solution so as to save their families from poverty was prostitution. “From the Illegal to the Immoral” was the title of an article published in L’Opinion, a Moroccan newspaper, on Monday 6 December 1999. The article reveals the relationship that exists between “Women and Contraband” and how a woman can be led to prostitution through contrabanding. The writer of this article shows how some female smugglers, who, being obliged to look for economic revenue and who lost their work as contrabandists, substituted the merchandise brought from the frontiers by selling their bodies[2]. Shababik in its issue published on 4 December 1998 also wrote about these women contrabandists who found refuge in prostitution[3].

2) The interviews

The setting is the bus station of Nador, a northern Moroccan city, where people run hither and thither seizing any opportunity for earning money. Old and young men and women as well, all gaze with a listless look at the endless number of smuggled goods.

On my way to Fes that morning, I was holding my questionnaire in my hand, with the intention to find a female smuggler to interview. I was quite certain to find at least two; but when I inquired the bus driver about some of them, he said it was impossible to find them at that hour because Fassi contrabandists leave the bus station early in the morning, after having packed all their merchandise at 7am. When I heard him say so, I could only imagine the kind of danger these women are exposed to, for the bus station is considered to be one of the most troublesome places, especially during dark hours of early mornings, and late afternoons.

The bus was leaving one hour late, so I took my seat, and spent the rest of the time watching the surroundings, the people and what they were doing. There were Spanish products spread around at every corner, and men and minors selling anything from watches to juice to the traveler, but what attracted my sight were those women, who were obviously smugglers, and who stood before big boxes in the middle of the bus-stop. I then saw women who seemed to work on their own. One could see them holding big boxes, sometimes wrapped in black plastic bags and bound strongly with white strings. The women held those boxes in their hands, on their backs, on their shoulders, or simply dragged them, if the boxes were resistant enough.

Local women who smuggle goods, as I learnt later, bring only few boxes from Melilla, and sell their goods to local sellers. One of these women, whom I interviewed in Nador, told me about her journey:

“I work everyday, and I make the same trip from Melilla to Nador daily. I go to the frontiers in the early morning at around 5am, and I pick up 4 to 6 products such as shampoos, perfumes, toothpastes… etc (I take up to 5 brands of each product), and then I come back to Nador around 7am. By 9am I would have sold all my merchandise, and then I go home to look after my family. It is really tiresome.”

This is the way a local female smuggler of Nador works within her city. What a woman who travels from a remote city does is another story.

In what follows, I will reveal the stories of two women whom I interviewed in the bus during one of my trips from Nador to Fes. I met them by accident and had with them an eleventh-hour interview, just when I started to lose hope of finding women to interview. Most of the women I knew before then resisted being interviewed. Those two women looked desperate and very scared (afraid of the trip seemingly), so when I suggested to ask them some questions, and explained to them the kind of conversation I was expecting to have with them, they agreed on the spot. The interview was realized in Moroccan Arabic, and took most of the trip; we had around 4 hours of conversation. 

I)“K.” talking about her experience

She refused to give me her name, so I called her “K.” She is 44 years old, married with four children. She said that she has never received education at school, and that for her there was no other choice but to work in contraband. She lives in the old Medina of Fez, and brings Spanish goods from Nador to Fes. I have chosen to include the most important part of the interview:

Q: Hello, I’m doing research about women involved in contraband like you, and wish to know your stories. Would you mind if I ask you some questions? 
A: Oh yeah? Of course you can… I’m all yours.

Q: I’ll be using the tape recorder; do you still want to proceed? (She hesitated for a while, then answered):
A: There’s no problem, as long as you promise me to be discreet!

Q: I promise!! Well, now let’s move straight to the topic of our conversation… would you tell me when, and why did you start smuggling?
A: I started long ago… more than 10 years back I found myself in need of making money, just when my husband suddenly stopped working. I had already my first two kids and there was nobody to rely on in fact.

Q: Would you please tell me about your work, the goods you bring and especially how you manage to cope with such a job?
A: To start, I’ve been doing the same trade since I begun doing contraband. I used to bring simple products and I still do; I bring home-wear, slippers, baby-pads, spices… etc. In truth, and as you can see, it is very difficult for a woman to involve herself in this job, but I couldn’t find another suitable and more rentable job than this. I tried working in houses but I wasn’t satisfied with the income. I lost all my wits and then I thought that smuggling could cover my needs; it doesn’t make me and my family live like kings, but at least I don’t have to borrow money to make ends meet every month. For the sake of my children and jobless husband, I dared the night, the road and their dangers.

Q: How much do you earn if I may inquire?
A: When I earn a lot, I get around 2000 and 2500 DH out of a single trip; but you know when you’re a contrabandist and when you are on the road, you must pay for everything. The authority and the bus owners take the biggest part, and then they send you away with what is left; for me a one way trip costs up to 300 DH or more, then I have to pay for my food, and in some cases I pay for a place where to spend the night… at least 700 or 800 DH is taken from the total sum I earn.

Q: You have problems in your work, and I guess you also have them in your social surroundings; can you tell me a little bit about these problems?
A: And you guessed well. I feel disturbed in my social life and relations as well. I can give you a very simple example: with the rhythm of life I have, I hardly have time for my relatives, and I usually miss some of the most important occasions such as weddings and family celebrations; thus I have lost contact with my family.

Q: I meant other kinds of problems; I mean does anyone refer to your contraband activity as illegal, or talk bad about your morals?
A: Of course I hear those kinds of comments, but most people know me very well and know about my situation. The sellers and the bus drivers do sympathize with me because they know my story; my neighbors and family do also… they can’t treat me as so. Nevertheless, there exist some women whose job is obscure; they do contraband and do other bad things I can’t mention… I pray to Allah to keep the believers from that path… they smuggle wine and other illicit stuff. As to me, I keep Halal, I pray and I fear Allah; I feel content with the few dirhams I get.

Q: As far as I know, you bring a good amount of goods to Fes. Tell me about the people who help you buy and carry that merchandise.
A: Nobody helps me. I do all that by myself. I go to the markets in Nador and buy all the things I need, then I pack up my merchandise and go straight to the bus station; I discuss the price of the trip with the owners of the bus I’ll be traveling with and that’s all. If my husband weren’t sick he might have helped me, or rather, I wouldn’t be working at all.

Q: What about your son? Does he help you?
A: No! I don’t want to see my children do what I do; I want them to be much better than I am. The eldest is a boy and he’s 17; I want him to excel in his studies; the same goes for the others… it is for their sake that I’m struggling like this.

Q: Every trip for you is, I suppose, an adventure. You meet with problems and obstacles that you manage to overcome, but sometimes you don’t. What can you say about this?
A: We make around a 220 miles trip at least twice a week to bring our goods. We spend around 6 hours on the road, so you can imagine the kinds of problems we do face. The most frequent source of trouble are the authorities who stop the bus several times, and there’s always a risk that they confiscate our goods. The policemen ask for money so as to let us go in peace and keep our merchandise, thus the bus owners negotiate the sum of money to be given in advance, and they pay it from our own money. What to do? Either you bribe them or you’d lose all your goods. Sometimes some of our acquaintances survey the road for us; when there’s any sort of danger, they call our cell-phones and ask us to halt our trip. And then, we put down all our bags and boxes and let the bus go on, so as to escape the authorities and save our money; but it is not always safe, because sometimes we are robbed and sent away. It is a big nightmare for people who work in the shadow to be stopped by the authorities. In the past, when we were not required to have travel papers and passports, I used to cross the frontiers to Melilla, and I suffered from the same problem; the Spanish authorities used to turn the blind eye to me; I only had problems with the Moroccan ones, who used to take away my merchandise.

Q: They take away all your merchandise?
A: They take them home as if they were their own possessions. I buy them with my money and they simply take them from me. You must obey them; otherwise you could be arrested. In fact it usually happens to me, and until now nothing has worked in these kind of situations; you can beg as much as you can and your trade is taken away at any rate. A woman in my shoes whose husband lies sick and jobless at home while there are bills to pay monthly, has no other alternative but to venture and do this job. I suffer a lot; you can see I have a tumor in my neck, and I’m sure it grows because of the anxieties I have every time I decide to go for a new trip. I fear for my merchandise and my money, because I could lose everything I have at any moment and in the blink of an eye; this is a permanent problem for me, because this nightmare happens at least twice a week. Besides, I receive ill-treatment from people of power on the way.

Once on one of my usual trips, and while pregnant in my 7th month, I rode the bus and it was one of those very hot days of summer. I was very sick, and when the cops entered into the bus and started taking the smuggled goods, they started asking me questions about my merchandise in a vulgar manner; when I resisted, one of them pulled me harshly and forced me to leave my seat; I was about to fall, and I begged them in vain. What was worse, the bus left and I remained there alone in the late afternoon waiting for another bus to come… I will never forget that day. (She let some drips of tears fall and then carried on) This is not a job; I only do it because I couldn’t find an alternative. I’m fed up with spending cold nights in bus stations, with hearing bad and humiliating insults from the policemen and from vulgar people on the road. I am fed up with everything. 

Q: If you were someone else what would you like to be?
A: I would only wish to stay at home to look after my family and live with dignity among them. This is my fate, I know, and I thank Allah for everything, but people who don’t experience the same as I do, can’t see how humiliating it is to do this kind of work… Hamadoulilah.

II) The story of "L"

She lives in the Old Medina of Fes, and the people in the bus call her L. She also smuggles goods from Nador to Fes. She was sitting close to me, seemed to be eager to speak while I was interviewing “K.” and then I realized that she was another contrabandist. She is around 40 years old, tall, tough and seemingly with a strong personality.

“My husband is very old, and he refuses to work… he can’t work. I’ve started smuggling goods more than 15 years back. I bring whatever I see suitable: clothes, shoes, food, cosmetics, etc. I have seven children, and if I don’t work I will have to beg in the streets. Nobody helps, you know? Nobody at all; they say: ‘she’s working, she’s got a job… she doesn’t need charity’. This job is trouble, and they don’t know that. One earns a few dirhams a week, and I usually borrow money when I have extra dues. I was 14 years old when I got married; when my husband stopped working I couldn’t stand the words of my children; they said that we should meet their needs because we brought them to this world, then I looked for a job. First I worked in houses, but it was not the perfect job for me; then I met a lady in a ‘Hammam’ who told me about smuggling. She encouraged me a lot and said I should give it a try. I sold my earrings, got 1000Dh and then I started doing contraband…”

“I didn’t find a better job than smuggling, though I earn a little compared to the sacrifice this work requires from me. I could do housework instead, but you know what these women would do? They would bring you all the dirty clothes, carpets, etc; they make you wash them all day long; then they give you 50DH. You can fancy what I might do with this 50DH bank-note; I would either pay the bus to get home, or spend it on my children…I live in the old Medina of Fes, in a place called ‘Errcif’; when I get to Fes, then I find the sellers to whom I sell my goods waiting for my arrival. They take their merchandise, and pay me. I bring between 1,000 and 1,200Dh of goods in one trip. And for each 50Dh of goods I get 5Dh of interest; it doesn’t make me rich but at least I manage to keep myself and my family alive.”

“There is an association that helps jobless people; it is called: ‘Al Amana’. They lend us money so as to promote our projects and it is legal; in the case of people like me, we use that money as a capital to buy the basic products to sell in the future. The amount they give us reaches 5,000Dh, and we get to have a net benefit of 600Dh; they give us a deadline of one week, then we’ll have to bring the money back. They know about the kind of work we’re doing, and the government knows that too; therefore, our business is in some sense a legal activity… Nevertheless, it is neither legal nor illegal. If the cops stop you with smuggled products, they would make you pay through the nose; one just has to be discreet. It is a matter of luck sometimes. The authorities do not care about our situation; when they take our goods, they also take the borrowed capital, and if we don’t pay back the loan in one week to the association, we are lost. Now I have a debt of five weeks; I’m gathering money to pay it back. If I don’t do it, they will come home and take everything I have.”

“The sellers in Fes don’t treat us well though they know most of us very well; the majority was brought up in the same neighborhood as I was. For instance, if it is not my day and I lose everything in a trip, they wouldn’t lend me the money to recover the lost capital. They are pure people of business. In the north, however, when our money is taken somehow, sellers there offer us all that we need and let us go till another day; they trust us and sympathize with us. I think the people in the centre of Morocco have more negative stereotypes about us than the rest have. Some of them take us for prostitutes, and I don’t care; they are stupid, because those who are prostitutes put make up, have attractive hair-cuts and put on beautiful clothes; they are not someone like me. How can I think about doing such a thing when I have to save my goods from being robbed?”

“The worst experience I’ve ever had was when I was caught by thieves in the middle of nowhere. It was a cold afternoon, and I ran down from the bus to escape the ‘Diwana’ (customs) in a place I didn’t know at all. I went on across endless lands, till I reached a wide river, and then I found myself face to face with three guys who turned out to be thieves. One of them took my money and the other was about to snatch away my jewelry. Luckily I had brought clothes, and I had them tied around my body under my ‘djellaba’, so they didn’t pay attention to my goods; otherwise they would have taken them too. I started screaming aloud when I saw a woman nearby, and they ran away. I was startled and she led me to the main road, then I recognized a bus, which I rode several times; the driver stopped upon seeing me and asked what the matter was. When I told him my story, he said I should thank God for staying alive; they could have killed me if it were darker.”

“All I can do is resign to my fate; I don’t love this job and the situation of my trips is the last thing I could praise. In fact, I thank God for having a rentable, though humiliating, job. At least my children don’t have to work or wait for charities from other people; I can provide them with what they need for school, food, and accommodation. Thanks to God indeed.”

Conclusion

Eventually, at the end of the trip, both “K.” and “L” managed to deliver their goods and sell them as it was expected. After the stressful events they had undergone during their trip, they could finally enjoy their time with their families; but how many other trips are they to do? And how many times would they be stopped and lose all their money again?

Months later, exactly on 17 July 2006, around 5pm, I saw “K.” in one of her usual trips again; this time she was smuggling some carpets, packs of juice and pajamas. When the bus was at about 25km of distance from Fes, the gendarmes stopped the bus to empty it from all the smuggled goods it transported. The woman might have saved some of her goods, because she managed to distribute some products among fellow travelers before the bus reached the police-centre.

The stories of the two contrabandists serve as an example of gender dynamics in the sphere of contraband as a job, and as an illegal activity within Moroccan society. It is worth mentioning here the role of NGO’s and the social actions that are being taken to improve the situation of poor women in the Third World. There are hundreds of women like my two interviewees at least in Fes who travel to other points of Morocco such as Oujda in the East, and Ceuta in the North in order to do contraband. They all experience the same problems on the road, and they all deserve a better life than the one they have.

Endnotes
[1] Essabah. Issue 1517, February 21st, 2005. 
[2] “From the Illegal to t he Immoral” in L’Opinion, Monday December 9th, 1999. 
[3] Shababik, December 4th, 1998.